Just saw this. Glad you posted it. However it just occurred to me that the Wookie isn't wearing any pants. The question "Where is Scully's hand?" suddenly becomes very important.

Then again, where is a Wookie's anus? It could be high, it could be low, where it is, I just don't know.

Also, how does a Wookie keep its fur clean? Most apes tend to be a bit hairless around the whole general vicinity (and the taint). But Wookies are really covered with fur. Does a Wookie shiat in the woods, and if so, how? Do they carry a small wad of toilet paper somewhere? Is their species one of the few that invented bidets before they invented chairs?

While visiting the other day, my father-in-law complained that my nephew told him that "dad says grampy doesn't know what he's talking about." Made me glad we live far enough away from my wife's parents that I'll likely not have to teach my daughter that same lesson.

People are going to make fun of this lady, 'Deeeerrrrrr! I caught the stupid from a lady on the bus!'

But I honestly suspect there is a social element to intelligence, or at the absolute minimum, the appearance of intelligence. Children are very impressionable and they do pick up habits of others. In actual practice, the line between having natural intelligence and having knowledge is pretty blurry and if a child idolizes someone who does act like they are 'as dumb as a bag of hammers' will probably pick up habits that might not impact their natural intelligence, but could certainly impact their acquisition of knowledge. And in a few years, it will have the same end result.

Growing up I moved from a nicer area to a crappier area and, in an attempt to fit in, my sister decided that doing good in school was 'uncool'. She hung out with a dumb crowd and adopted a lot of their phrases and manorisms. At first, that's just superficial. But she also adopted their attitudes towards school and education; and after a few years of not applying herself....even if her intelligence was unaffected, she performed poorly academically and was completely turned off to learning. It created a big knowledge deficit. When it was time for junior high placement tests - she performed poorly, not because she 'caught the stupid' but she spent years trying NOT to learn anything. And her poor placement scores meant that she was placed in a classroom with......students who performed poorly. Some of whom might have been less intelligent, or lazy, or that had no desire to learn, or just didn't like school. Whatever. Those classes had more disruptions, less motivated teachers, covered less material, and kids tend to socialize with those around them. Her social circle was filled with people in the 'slow' classes. That became her normal.

Similarly, studies have shown that obesity has a large social component. I suspect for many of the same reasons. Your social circle has a huge impact on what defines your 'normal'. And if all your friends are obese, it makes it a lot easier for you to be obese. You're around obese people, you start to feel like it's normal. You also hang out with these people and emulate their behaviors - if all your friends are going to go eat a lot - most teenagers are going to do what their friends do. If they're all talking about eating salads or hitting the gym....most teenagers are going to go along with that too.

So yeah, at first glance, 'Catching teh fat!' sounds ridiculous; but it isn't. I suspect 'Catching teh stupid' is the same.

Can you catch stupid from your grandmother? I don't know. But here's my contribution.

All my life my dad has been sorta homophobic. When I was five, I wanted to be Dracula for Halloween, and my grandmother, his mother-in-law, cut up an old evening gown to make me a Dracula cape and matching black velvet pants. When I wanted clown makeup, he objected, saying that makeup was for girls. His unspoken fear was that it would make me gay. He may have had a point.

Anyhow, my grandmother bought me the clown makeup. And gave me piano lessons. And taught me to sew. And pretty much taught me all the fun gay-boy stuff that my father hated. (I Everything, that is, aside from the coxzucking. I had to learn that on my own.) I'm pretty sure, knowing my grandmother and my father and how they disliked each other, that this was deliberate.

So while it's now considered backward and unenlightened to think you can train someone to be gay... I don't know if you can catch stupid from your grandmother, but I'll always have a doubt in the back of my mind about what early training and a dedicated old lady can do.

Funny to see Starshine Rochelle pop up somewhere else. She also writes columns for Westways, the official magazine / life insurance sales pitch book for AAA Southern California.

Her last big article was about a road trip that her and her family took in a *gasp* RV. As an ultra liberal city chick who's self admitted idea of a vacation was going to a resort and being pampered with cucumber facials, it was amusing reading her first time account of hitting the highways with her family in a rolling box.

As someone who owns and enjoys an RV it was entertaining to see it from that perspective.

highwayrun:So while it's now considered backward and unenlightened to think you can train someone to be gay... I don't know if you can catch stupid from your grandmother, but I'll always have a doubt in the back of my mind about what early training and a dedicated old lady can do.

If your dad was so afraid of the gay that clown makeup was out, I don't think it was your grandmother you caught it from.

Whatever happened to teaching your child that respecting one's elders does not mean you have to respect everything they do? It's fine for Grandma to be a dunce, because loving Grandma doesn't mean that you have to believe what she believe, say what she says, or act like she acts. As long as Grandma isn't doing something that hurts the kid, that type of interaction is the perfect teachable setting. What's the alternative - to teach the kid that they should avoid everyone who isn't exactly like them (or like Mommy)? Whatever happened to, "It takes all kinds"?

Case in point: I grew up in the Deep South. My paternal grandmother, who was the sweetest, kindest person on earth, was also one of the most uneducated. She did not know any words to refer to black people except for the most offensive one, because that's what she was taught to say, and she was past the age where anyone could have changed her behavior. My parents let me spend plenty of time with her, but also taught me that her language was utterly unacceptable for me to use.

They should have been more specific about what kind of stupid the MIL was. Is she stupid because she dyes her hair? Stupid because she thinks stripey toothpaste is a miracle of science? Stupid because she's a lying, asswipey drama queen but happens to be popular with toddlers?

My own mother would love to spend time with her grandkids, but she's a lying, asswipey drama queen. She throws temper tantrums when things don't go her way, and is deliberately hyperbolic about it in public. We haven't spoken in years.

My MIL enjoys seeing the kids on birthdays and holidays, but she's very anal about her house and is uncomfortable with small kids running around. She is very vocal about things like fingerprints and messes. In her opinion, it's the height of rudeness for a guest to use the restroom and not take the time to wipe water spots off the bathroom fixtures. She's also made it very clear to all of her kids that she's NOT a babysitter.

If the mother is "stupid" like mine, I understand. If the mother is simply airheaded, suck it up and be grateful she enjoys time with your kid. Unless of course you have plenty of other people willing to watch your kid from time to time. Because it sucks balls when you don't.

penthesilea:My mother is a fundie teabagger type. My sister & I both have 10 year old sons.

My sister's kid is at grandma's house almost everyday. Grandma has taught the boy that the world is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are the work of the devil. She has also taught him that black/brown people are scary and bad. The kid goes to a really good school and is otherwise a smart kid. Unfortunately, he believes everything his grandma says is true.

We live in a different state and limit visits with her to once a year at most. I don't want my mom's particular brand of crazy to influence my kid in any way. Hell, most of my family are drug addicts, child molesters, and/or violent. You don't get to be around my kid just because we're related.

Don't worry, get the kid a job at a young age where he has to interact with other non-WASP/teabagger people and he'll realize it's all bullshiat pretty quick.

/Raised in a neo-con household where we listened to Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis//Trying to save my Mom from the derp, my Dad keeps on reinfecting her though

teeny:They should have been more specific about what kind of stupid the MIL was. Is she stupid because she dyes her hair? Stupid because she thinks stripey toothpaste is a miracle of science? Stupid because she's a lying, asswipey drama queen but happens to be popular with toddlers?

My own mother would love to spend time with her grandkids, but she's a lying, asswipey drama queen. She throws temper tantrums when things don't go her way, and is deliberately hyperbolic about it in public. We haven't spoken in years.

My MIL enjoys seeing the kids on birthdays and holidays, but she's very anal about her house and is uncomfortable with small kids running around. She is very vocal about things like fingerprints and messes. In her opinion, it's the height of rudeness for a guest to use the restroom and not take the time to wipe water spots off the bathroom fixtures. She's also made it very clear to all of her kids that she's NOT a babysitter.

If the mother is "stupid" like mine, I understand. If the mother is simply airheaded, suck it up and be grateful she enjoys time with your kid. Unless of course you have plenty of other people willing to watch your kid from time to time. Because it sucks balls when you don't.

Boris S. Wort:B-b-but she undermines all her advice by saying she dies her hair.

It would be like my doctor giving me a whole bunch of prescriptions and then telling me he's not really a doctor.

/on the interweb, no one knows you dye your hair.

*snrk*

There is the photo to the right. Could anyone suspect those highlights stripes were natural?

CSB: Ma used to work at a religious school where make-up and hair-dye were strictly forbidden. Nonetheless, she decided to go from D.Trump Yellow to Fire-Engine Red in one weekend. A co-worker with Purrrple-ish Highlights sidled up to her and whispered conspiratorially, "Psst! Do you dye your hair too? Tee-hee!" Ma replied with a straight face, "Nope. I never have."